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People often complain that a SQL DBMS is "too inflexible", and "too hard to change". I'm not sure why. It's not like if I store my data in the filesystem I can magically change it. I need to change my code to accomodate that change. The same goes for using XML documents, or Berkeley DB files, etc.

No matter how you store data, your code will have to account for that. When you want to change what you store, you'll have to change your code, and you may have to write some sort of "upgrade" script to change your existing data as well. That's life.

In many ways, these sorts of changes are _easier_ with a SQL DBMS, because SQL provides a powerful language for describing changes to existing data (UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE).

Sure, SQL sucks, but I'd rather use it than hand-code my data layer in Perl for ever damn app!

Exactly. I remember the horror days of flat files. If you needed to add a field, it was hours (potentially more) if you needed to reformat the file to add in another field. Heaven forbid someone needed to maintain that file while you were using it.... I'll deal with the oddities and inconsistencies of a SQL implementation any day just to avoid those headaches.Sure, SQL and RDBMSes aren't perfect. Nothing is. The type of things he's griping about though... for the time being, they're as close to perfec

Somehow, strangely, this was already fixed...maybe I did it
subconsciously, maybe there are helpful little gnomes running around
in the repository and fixing bugs while we sleep, I don't know..
-- Jarkko Hietaniemi

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